Countries that have signed onto a high-level declaration on trade and gender are preparing to put their programme of work into action, having set the WTO’s Twelfth Ministerial Conference (MC12) in late 2019 as their target date for delivery. In late December, a coalition of 121 WTO members and...

Although expectations were comparatively low as delegations gathered in Buenos Aires last December, the outcome of the WTO’s Eleventh Ministerial Conference (MC11) still came as a disappointment to many in the trade policy community and beyond. Unable to overcome their differences, the organisation...

In the aftermath of the December WTO Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires, pessimism about the future of the institution has been reaching record levels and no clear plan has emerged yet on where to take the WTO next. In this rather bleak environment, what are the possible options for African...

Disciplining agricultural protectionism has long been a challenge for trade negotiators. The Doha Round stumbled over it and the impasse over public stockholding continues. Should the WTO just give up on agriculture? In the early 2000s, subsidies and trade barriers in rich countries were helping...

With the failure of the Eleventh Ministerial Conference to produce any substantial results, the WTO has reached an impasse. From an African perspective and fired with a constructive spirit, this article explores potential leads for moving forwards. In the absence of results from the last WTO...

In a difficult environment for multilateral rule-making, important lessons may lie in the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement’s mechanism for special and differential treatment of developing and least developed countries. This post argues that the agreement’s novel approach to differentiated...